Abstract
Zearalenone (ZEA) and Deoxynivalenol (DON) are two mycotoxins highly detected in agricultural products and feed. Both mycotoxins produce reproductive toxicity and pose a serious threat to human and animal health, among which pigs are the most sensitive animals. Sertoli cells (SCs) play an important role in spermatogenesis; however, the combined toxicity of ZEA and DON and the screening of effective protective agents remains to be determined. By studying the effects of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on the cells exposed to 20 μM of ZEA and 0.6 μM of DON, we explored the protective mechanism of NAC (4 mM) on the cytotoxic injury of piglets SCs induced by both mycotoxins. The results showed that the combination of ZEA and DON destroy organelles and SCs structures, NAC significantly alleviates the damage caused by ZEA and DON. NAC also significantly increased the expression and distribution of zonula occludens 1 (ZO-1), decreased the relative mRNA and protein expression levels of Bax, Bid, caspase-3, and caspase-9, and increased Bcl-2 expression level and inhibited the decrease of mitochondrial membrane potential. Further, NAC also eases the cell cycle arrest and oxidative stress caused by ZEA and DON. In summary, our results show that NAC could alleviate SCs injury via reducing the oxidative damage and apoptosis caused by ZEA and DON.
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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- BCA:
-
bicinchoninic acid
- CAT:
-
catalase
- DCFH-DA:
-
2,7-Dichlorodi-hydrofluorescein diacetate
- DON:
-
deoxynivalenol
- ELISA:
-
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
- FBS:
-
fetal bovine serum
- GSH-Px:
-
glutathione peroxidase
- MDA:
-
malondialdehyde
- MMP:
-
mitochondrial membrane potential
- NAC:
-
N-acetylcysteine
- PVDF:
-
polyvinylidene fluoride
- ROS:
-
reactive oxygen species
- SDS-PAGE:
-
sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis
- SOD:
-
superoxide dismutase
- ZEA:
-
zearalenone
- ZO-1:
-
zonula occludens 1.
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Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant No. 31472250), the Project of Modern Agricultural Industry and Technology System of Anhui Province (grant No. AHCYJSTX-05-07), and the Graduate student innovation fund of Anhui Agricultural University (grant No. 2021yjs-16). We wish to thank anonymous reviewers for their kind advice.
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Li Cao: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Software, Visualization, Writing-original Draft, Writing-Review and editing. Jie Zhao: Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Resources, Validation, Visualization, Writing-Review, and Editing. Jingru Xu: Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Resources, Writing-Review, and Editing. Lei Zhu: Data Curation, Resources. Sajid ur Rahman: Writing-Review and Editing, Data Curation, Resources. Shibin Feng: Project Administration, Resources. Yu Li: Project Administration, Resources. Jinjie Wu: Project Administration, Resources. Xichun Wang*: Conceptualization, Formal Analysis, Funding Acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Resources, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing-Review, and Editing.
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Cao, L., Zhao, J., Xu, J. et al. N-acetylcysteine ameliorate cytotoxic injury in piglets sertoli cells induced by zearalenone and deoxynivalenol. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 60276–60289 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14052-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14052-9